Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Germany, Austria and other European
nations harbored a “deep distrust” of a U.S. program that
monitors millions of international banking transactions for
evidence of terrorist activity, the New York Times reported,
citing State Department cables.

An examination of State Department cables by the newspaper
showed that traditional European allies were concerned that the
program might be used for economic espionage and worried that it
prioritized American national security over European civil
liberties.

A cable from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Austria
reported that “the Nazi legacy and a familiarity with communist
regimes” fueled “a widespread presumption against government
data collection.”

The program, created in secrecy by the Bush administration,
allows U.S. counterterrorism officials to scrutinize banking
transaction data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank
Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, a Belgium-based
cooperative that routes trillions of dollars daily between
banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions.

The European Parliament voted 378-196 to halt the program
on Feb. 10. After a lobbying push by top Obama administration
officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Treasury Secretary Eric Holder, the European Parliament voted
484-109 in July to restart the program.